One thing you never want to see out of any athlete is poor body language. When a player hangs his head and slumps in his chair, unless it is from being physically exhausted, there is a problem. What makes me particularly concerned is that the entire Rockets team was doing that tonight...in the FIRST QUARTER. It is one thing down 15 with 3 minutes to go, but in the FIRST QUARTER. There is just a lot of "here we go again" looks on players' faces and that is a serious problem. That means these guys are not motivated and it means they are developing a serious loser mentality. I can understand if this were mid-season and they were on a 10-game losing streak, but this is early in the year and they look like someone shot their best friend. That is a very bad sign, IMO.
Sounds like last year's Magic team. But it's still too early, it's only the last game of November. The Rockets are definitely going to be better, and I'm sure all of our jeers will turn into cheers once we start winning!
It's scary to think that this team may have already quit on JVG. If that's the case, it's going to be a looooong season. This team is getting harder and harder to defend.
See, I think that's what we missed most about Steve and Cat. They makes boneheaded mistakes but you can tell they just love to win and compete no matter what. Remember Yao's rookie year and they know they were out of the playoffs playing their last game. Yao said it himself, he was indifferent to the game till Cat yelled at him play for real or get out of here (or something like that). We need a player that's playing to win even when they are loosing, and we don't have that any more.
Noticed the same thing. Here are a couple reason why this may be happening. 1) Acquired a roster full of players who are used to playing in losing situations. (Every player from the Magic, Sura, even the Rockets who have been here as they have only made the playoffs as of last year) 2) Maybe they really are not responding to JVG, his coaching style and/or demeanor. Maybe they know, win or lose, that they will hear nothing but how bad they play.
Jeff, I actually so that in the 3rd quarter also. The worst thing for any coach is when the team gives up on him and his system. This team needs help and fast... You have the leading score afraid to shoot the ball and then you have a big man with excellent passing skills that doesn't pass the ball anymore. I'm afraid that it is too late for Van Gudy too pull this team together. The only exception is too get rid of him, I just don't see the players buying into his system or believing in him. T_Man
isn't it up to mr T-mac to rally the troops? where is this fool/ he aint Kobe and he aint MJ I think it's apparently clear. And we all know Yao is no leader. I know someone who's a leader--CHISE!!!so sad.
Basketball is a game. It should be fun to play. Basketball should not be like doing taxes. Players are just going to work now.
A leader on the floor is only as good as the leader he is following. People tend to forget the HELL that MJ went thru before Phil. Phil helped MJ to turn things around, Kobe has been blessed to be surronded by Vet players. But it still took a coach like Phil to show him the way. For those of you who think T_Mac is not the leader, look at what he has done. He has changed his game for VG and to work it around Yao. Leadership comes in many ways... Not all leaders are vocal, look at Hakeem. T_Man
Basically we have a bunch of zombies going thru the motions for a paycheck. They need to bring in Tony Robbins to wake these guys up.
But MJ was still playing with fire, and competing with all he had before Phil Jackson. MJ was still a leader. We don't have that right now. If it looked like everyone was really busting it but they were contained by JVG's system that would be one thing. I'm not a huge fan JVG's system, but our problems go deeper than that, and the other problems need to be fixed before we can even fairly look at JVG's system.
You comparing hakeem to t-MAC? hakeem was a workhorse, dedicated every night. night in and night out. mr clutch. a dominant-DOMINANT player. a great player offensively and defensively. t-mac's not this. not even close. please.
What bad could come of firing JVG? We are playing terrible and I don't see how we can play any worst.
Actually, in terms of personality, they are very similar. Hakeem's only demand came in the form of "give me da bahl!" But, that's fine. That's why we had guys like Maxwell and Elie. They were the guys out on the court getting pissed and challenging each other.
I don't think the team don't want to compete. They play hard on the court. You see guys like Lue diving on the floor with a torn cartilage. Sura dives on the floor just off an injury. They spend too much energy and get little results. That's the problem. They are frustrated and disappointed. T-Mac shook his head several on the bench at the end of the Pistons game. You can tell he doesn't want to lose and was disgusted. I suspect JVG is micro managing the game too much instead of giving T-Mac and Yao free reign on offense, at the same time failed to establish a system. The end result is the Rockets having no leader nor teamwork. The players are lost.
But give me the ball, because he had desire and fire to take on the responsibility of doing the work for the team. He was willing and even demanded that chance to carry the team. So far tmac doesn't seem like he wants that responsibility. It is too early to write tmac off like that, so I'm only going on the games so far this season. It may be that JVG is too much of disciplinarian and he's scared to make a mistake and get in trouble, or he wants to sacrifice to make Yao more dominant, or whatever, but enough is enough. If Yao isn't getting it done or stepping up the same way, then tmac should. 'give me da bahl!' is at least willing to take over and be a leader. To me that is problem number 1 right now. There are plenty of problems, from the coach, to which players work best with our stars etc. but none of them will matter until this team and spefically our leaders show the desire to lead a team, play hard, and compete.
